216 DAEWmiSa STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



of innocent persons by the ordeal of poison or fire ; ■witch- 

 craft, etc. — yet it is well occasionally to reflect on these 

 superstitions, for they show us what an infinite debt of 

 gratitude we owe to the improvement of our reason, to 

 science, and to our accumulated knowledge. As Sir J. 

 Lubbock has well observed, "It is not too much to say 

 that the horrible dread of unknown evil hangs like a 

 thick cloud over savage life, and embitters every pleas- 

 ure." These miserable and indirect consequences of our 

 highest faculties may be compared with the incidental 

 and occasional mistakes of the instincts of the lower ani- 

 mals. 



